The FWC approved the Florida Black Bear Management Plan in 2012 to conserve the state’s largest land mammal. The 10-year plan calls for the creation of seven Bear Management Units (BMUs) across the state.

A BMU is a geographic location bounded by county and/or state borders with one of the seven Florida black bear subpopulations within it. The goal of a BMU is to provide a defined area within which FWC can have a community-focused effort to effectively manage and conserve Florida black bears.

FWC will engage with a Bear Stakeholder Group (BSG) within each BMU in order to manage black bears based on the local bear and human populations and receive public input on managing and conserving bears within the BMU.

A Bear Stakeholder Group (BSG) is a core group of government officials, members of the public, landowners, non-profit organizations, partner agencies, and businesses in a specific BMU. The BSG will meet multiple times a year to work collaboratively with FWC staff to address bear issues in their BMU.

FWC began launching the BMUs in October 2013 with the West Panhandle BMU, followed by the Central BMU in March 2014, East Panhandle BMU in April 2014, South BMU in June 2014, the North and South Central BMUs in October and September 2014, and lastly the Big Bend BMU in December 2014. FWC hosted multiple public workshops and government briefings where local government partners and residents provided input on bear issues they were experiencing and ideas on how to reduce conflicts.

If you were unable to attend a meeting but still would like to join a Bear Stakeholder Group, please contact staff at BearPlan@MyFWC.com

Explore the map to learn more about your BMU and how you can get involved.

Please watch for notice of meetings about your BMU and how you can get involved. You also can sign up for GovDelivery, a new service available through MyFWC.com allowing you to receive automatic emails and/or text messages with FWC news and information on this and other topics.

The following graphs will allow you to compare how your BMU stacks up against the other six BMUs.

In 2002, FWC estimated the statewide bear population at 2,705 to 2,941 bears. In the chart below, you will see the lower and upper population estimates for each BMU, along with the average number of bears displayed to the right.

Potential bear habitat are areas with characteristics that make them more likely to have bears living there. As the name implies, however, potential bear habitat is not necessarily occupied by bears. The four characteristics of potential bear habitat are: 1) land cover type (e.g., forest vs. urban), 2) habitat size, 3) distance from high quality habitats, and 4) connectivity and size of large habitats across the landscape. See the following pie chart for the potential acreage available in each BMU.

FWC receives thousands of bear-related calls from people each year. Some of the calls are positive or neutral in nature, such as reporting a sighting of a bear in the area. Other calls may be more serious, like a bear accessing unsecured garbage. FWC staff offer advice to callers to try to resolve the issue being raised. The next pie chart demonstrates how many calls each BMU has received between 1990 and 2012.

The final goal to be addressed is potential threats to a bear subpopulation. As you can see in the pie chart below, vehicle related deaths (i.e., roadkill) were substantial in two of the BMUs.

FWC Facts:Slow-growing stony corals have been declining throughout the Florida Keys, altering the living reef structure that began forming 6,000 years ago.